Assembling a cane

I put this tutorial of sorts together a few years ago to explain some basics of cane building, I believe it's since been lost so I'll post it here :) You're going to need to know some polymer clay basics to get this.


By this point the clay has been conditioned...I take a triangle of white and a triangle of blue, I begin to roll these through my machine folding and pulling it through again creating a gradient blend.


When I have a nice blend I turn it sideways and roll it out thinner and thinner...then I roll it all up (starting from the white creates a highlight effect)


I continue doing this for my other colours.


Here I've cut the yellow cane (the cane is the rod of clay) and inserted black sheets of clay for veining


I wrap all my canes in a thin sheet of black for contrast... here I have reduced and cut up the red cane (by squeezing and pulling, rolling just a bit to make it longer and thinner) and form the body of the dragonfly..

I reduce my other canes and start inserting them around the body, cutting them to fit, I want a nice round result (easiest to reduce later)


Now I pull and squeeze like I said, if done properly the pattern distorts very little...but a little distortion is normal and I think it's charming...


reduced cane, ready to slice...i can bring these down to a 3 mm diameter and lose no detail.


some slices taken too early so they're a bit distorted (the clay was warm) but you get the idea...if you cut thick slices you get cane slice beads, or you can slice extremely thin slices and layer these over a clay ball to get other shapes...which is what you see in the rest of my work...

hope this gives you all an idea, see, no paint :)